I find these stories fascinating and adds another interesting understanding of Coptic history. A group of Nile delta Copts, called the Bashmurians, seemed to be the "Coptic Spartans" of the time, giving the new Arabic invaders a hard time for about a century.

Well, I thought maybe I could share this with all of you for an interesting look at what seemed to have been a group of Copts who were not influenced by Church politics or other more submissive cultures of Coptic peoples, but did not stay silent to protect their people and their culture. Their subject came up when rumors about a new Mel Gibson movie that features these people was circulating. Unfortunately, there's only one source of the rumors:

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It has bee reported that the American Producer and director Mel Gibson’s next movie about Peshmurians Copts war against Islam in Egypt .

Which received their sources from an Arabic site called Senksar, which is pretty much a tabloid-like site, thus putting to question the validity of this claim.

Nevertheless, it's a fascinating subject to read about, which is presented in the Coptic Nationalism blog:

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The Coptic Encyclopedia has an excellent article titled “Bashmuric Revolts” which has been written by Mounir Megally. It gives a summary of the Coptic revolts in the first two centuries of the Arab occupation of Egypt. He gives a list of eleven sources to his article. Megally also gives a valuable opinion as to the reason why these revolts failed. As a good introduction to the topic, I take the liberty to reintroduce it here for the benefit of my readers:[ii]

Dionysius I (or Dionysius of Tell-Mahre) was patriarch (818–845[ii] AD) of the Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch, which had historically close ties with the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. He wrote an account of history, Chronicle, but it was lost. Lengthy extracts of it, however, were preserved in the chronicle of the later Syrian patriarch, Michael the Syrian (1166-1199 AD).

Dionysius, who had good relationship as it seems with the Abbasid rulers, visited Egypt twice. His first visit to Egypt was in 826 or 827 AD in a matter related to the Syrian Church in Edessa and Nisibin, where churches in the former were demolished by the Abbasid authorities and those of the latter, where Dionysius resided, were threatened by the same fate. Dionysius journeyed to Egypt to plead with Egypt’s Muslim governor, Abdulah ibn Tahir (726 – 827 AD),[iii] in order to prevent his brother, Muhammad, governor of Callinicum (Raqqa), from continuing the destruction of the Syrian churches. During this visit he met with the Coptic patriarch, Jacob or Ya’kub (819 – 830 AD),[iv] and saw the suffering of the Copts, particularly those of Tanis,[v] under Muslim oppression. He wrote about those of Tanis: “We had never seen poverty such as that of its inhabitants”.[vi] [vii]

The second visit was in February 832 AD when he accompanied the Abbasid Caliph, al-Ma’mun (813 – 833 AD),[viii] in his visit to Egypt to crush the Bashmuric rebellion which his governor, Isa ibn Mansur,[ix] and dispatched military leader, al-Agh’sheen, had failed to achieve. Al-Ma’mun, who reached Fustat,[xi] the centre of the Muslim governor, on 16 February 832 AD, he summoned the Syrian patriarch, Dionysius I, and the Coptic patriarch, Joseph (or Yu’sab) I,[xii] to intercede with the Bashmurites to end their revolt.

“Satan … stirred up, at the beginning of Abba Joseph’s pontificate, a great war in the eastern and western parts of Egypt, which led to universal plunder and slaughter. For there was much fighting throughout the country. In the words of the prophet Amos: ‘This is what the Lord, the Ruler, says. There shall be lamentation in all places’.

… Thus Satan did not cease to stir up wars and murder. [And] in spite of the troubles from which the people were suffering, [tax overseers] persisted in demanding the taxes without mercy, and men were increasingly and incalculably distressed. Their greatest trouble arose from the extortion practised by the … overseers of taxes; for what they could not pay was required of them. After this the merciful God by his righteous judgment sent down a great dearth upon Egypt, so that wheat reached the price of one dinar for five waibahs. Many of the women and infants and young people, and of the old and the middle-aged, died of starvation, in fact of the whole population a countless number, through the severity of the famine. And the overseer of taxes was doing harm to the people in every place. And most of the Bashmurite Christians were severely chastised, like the Israelites; so that at last they even sold their own children to pay their taxes, because they were greatly distressed. For they were tied to the mills and beaten, so that they should work the mills like cattle…. So, after long and wearisome days, death put an end to their sufferings.

But afterward the Bashmurites, seeing that they had no means of escape, and at the same time that no troops could enter their country on account of the abundance of marshes which it contained, and because none was acquainted with the roads except themselves, began to rebel and to refuse to pay the taxes. And they came to an agreement and plotted together over this matter.”

More resources on the Bashmuric revolts in the blog can be found here:

Would that we'd have had Patriarchs like Catholicos Mkrtich Khrimyan of blessed memory at that time.

The were also a number of revolts in upper Egypt as well; brave men who fought off their Arab overlords with nothing but farming tools. But without the whole nation rising up, these efforts were all doomed from the start.

Here's the entry on the revolt from the Coptic Encyclopedia:

excerpt: "Thus ended the last revolt of the Copts in Egypt. Without anyreal political plan or any national leadership, without any organizedarmed force, and in the face of a strong, experienced army, thesespasmodic revolts were an indication of desperate courage. Not onlydid they achieve nothing but they drained the force and pride of theCopts. Nonetheless, these revolts are important for Coptic history, asthey shed light on the character of the Coptic masses."